Elephants Living Large

Science Comic Series

By Jason Viola, Falynn Koch (Illustrator)              

ISBN: 9781250265913

Website: jasonviola.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra                   

Summary:

Did you know elephants are the world’s largest land animals? Male African elephants can reach ten feet tall and weigh up to 16,500 pounds! These endangered animals are beloved for the massive ears ears, thick skin, and flexible trunks, as well as their remarkable intelligence and empathy. And despite their size, the more you get to know them, the more you’ll realize humans and elephants have a lot in common! (Goodreads)

Review:

Another educational delight in the Science Comics series! Elephants are such interesting animals! As always, a fun and entertaining journey learning about elephants in a way, I feel, that will keep the young learners’ interest. It certainly held my interest.

The introduction at the beginning of the book pointed out many interesting facts about elephants. Interesting to read that elephants and humans are surprisingly similar in many ways, socially and psychologically. These first two pages provided many pieces of information, which were then portrayed in graphic format to accentuate the life of an elephant.

The story follows the journey of one young elephant (Duni) as she navigates growing up and learning about herself and her family…all the while in a manner that any reader can relate to.

With respect to the graphics, they were instructional, detailed, and at times very funny. I loved the female elephants being portrayed as working and playing together, I had a little giggle when there was an explanation where the female elephants work together looking after the calves where the picture showed one of the females taking a picture with a cell phone – it had me chuckling. 🙂

Learning about the trunk…with SO many muscles – over 40,000! Wow. And it can hold up to 5.5 liters of water, which is held in the trunk until poured into their mouth.

I loved the storytelling that included pictures with current day items (for example: playing Nintendo to indicate the bachelor group of male elephants don’t live completely alone even though they have left their families – they have interactions with others).

The glossary at the end of the book provides a concise and easily understood set of definitions of terms that were discussed in the book.

This book has the right amount of content (it is not overly filled with facts and figures to overwhelm the reader) presented in such a way as to grab and maintain one’s interest. An enjoyable way to increase one’s knowledge and understanding of elephants.